Modeling of applications and business process services through auto discovery analysis

ABSTRACT

A method for managing information technology (IT) through auto discovery analysis to achieve business relevance is provided. An IT infrastructure is monitored to discover managed components of the infrastructure and discover business processes which are supported by the infrastructure. An information model is formed based on the discovered components and the discovered business processes. The information model can be used to provide assorted IT services.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of commonly owned U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/486,317, filed Jul. 11, 2003 and entitled “MODELINGOF APPLICATIONS AND BUSINESS PROCESS SERVICES THROUGH AUTO DISCOVERYANALYSIS”.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to information technology. In particular, theapplication relates to modeling of applications and business processservices through auto discovery analysis.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

In the current information age, information technology (IT) plays asubstantial role in enterprise and business management, in mostinstances. Many enterprises and businesses struggle, however, tomaintain an IT system which allows them to stay competitive againsttheir competitors.

In particular, enterprises and businesses typically study and considerthe return-on-investment of IT offerings on the market. Whileconventional IT products and services usually remain static over theirlifetimes or can be reconfigured only manually through substantial timeand effort, the IT needs of an enterprise or business can changerapidly, sometimes even on a daily basis, according to businesspriorities.

There is a continuing need for IT infrastructure which can dynamicallyadapt according to business priorities and remain relevant to businessobjectives.

SUMMARY

The application provides methods for managing information technology(IT) through auto discovery analysis to achieve business relevance. Inone embodiment, the method includes providing one or more IT services tomonitor an IT infrastructure and thereby discover managed components ofthe infrastructure and discover business processes which are supportedby the infrastructure, and forming an information model based on thediscovered components and the discovered business processes.

The auto discovery analysis can include one or more of the following:performing network elements discovery; performing systems discovery;performing network flow discovery; performing batch process discovery;and performing middleware integration discovery.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features of the present application can be more readily understoodfrom the following detailed description with reference to theaccompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1A shows a flow chart of a method for modeling of applications andbusiness process services through auto discovery analysis, according toan embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 1B shows a flow chart of a method, according to another embodiment,for managing information technology (IT) through auto discovery analysisto achieve business relevance;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary heterogeneous ITinfrastructure;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of a system for achievingbusiness relevance, according to one exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of a common computing andmanagement environment, according to one exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of a layered servicesarchitecture, according to one exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 shows a schematic representation of a layered application scheme,according to one exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 7 shows a schematic representation of a business relevance system,according to one exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This application provides tools for modeling of applications andbusiness process services through auto discovery analysis. The tools maybe embodied in a computer program stored on a computer readable mediumand/or transmitted via a computer network or other transmission medium.

The tools provide the capability to automatically discover and record,on an ongoing basis, the managed elements of the infrastructure togetherwith the business processes that are being supported, and perform amapping of dependency relationships between those parts.

Automatic discovery includes discovery of managed components of an ITinfrastructure. The following auto discovery paradigms may be includedto provide for an automated, robust and meaningful grouping of thecomponents as they support relevant business processes: network elementsdiscovery; systems discovery; network flow discovery; batch processdiscovery; and middleware integration discovery. Auto discovery mayinclude discovery of managed components such as networks, systems,applications, business processes, agents, database objects,applications, IT hardware, etc.

The methodologies also include discovery and rendition of businessprocess, broken down to its constituent parts as represented byinfrastructure elements.

Network data traffic and pattern flows may be analyzed for automaticdiscovery of infrastructure mapping to business process. Network flowsallow the ability to interpret which piece of the IT infrastructure iscommunicating with another piece of the infrastructure. The networkflows may be analyzed to map distinct groupings of the IT infrastructureto the type of communication traffic. The mapping can then be modeled torepresent sets of fundamental business processes, as relevant betweenthe IT infrastructure and the model of these sets of processes. As onelayer of an auto discovery methodology, automatic modeling of groups ofIT processes can be mapped and visualized as being relevant toappropriate applications.

Automatic discovery of IT infrastructure may include analysis of batchprocessing flows.

Batch processing is a process by which large volumes of data arecollected over time, and then are processed at once, typically at aselected time at which resources are typically not otherwise in greatdemand. In many instances, data communications for batch processing aregrouped together. For example, data for transactions by a business maybe collected during the course of a business day, and transmitted todata processing facilities at the end of the business day, to beprocessed at a scheduled time during the business off-time of that day.

Analysis of batch processing flows allow the ability to integrate backoffice operations around commercial as well as custom builtapplications. Analysis of batch processing flows allows mapping ofdistinct business processes as relevant to the IT infrastructure andmodeling of the sets of processes. As one layer of an auto discoverymethodology, automatic modeling of functional IT processes can be mappedand be made relevant to the appropriate applications, according to batchprocessing flows.

Automatic discovery of IT infrastructure for business process models mayinclude analysis of middleware flows.

Middleware can be any programming that serves to glue together ormediate between disparate software systems. Middleware facilitatescommunications between different applications, such as by providingmessaging service. For example, the middleware may run on a server toallow clients to access a database connected to the server, includingmanaging communications between a client program and a database. Asanother example, middleware can act as an application processing gatewayor a routing bridge between remote clients and data sources or otherservers, and may control the transmission of data exchange over anetwork. Thus, applications can invoke services through middleware. Inmany instances, the middleware allows for greater interoperabilitybetween different systems and applications, and shields users anddevelopers from differences imposed by incompatible operatingenvironments. In addition, middleware can also form a virtualapplication with real-time access to business processes.

IT processes may be integrated around commercial as well as custom builtapplications according to analysis of middleware flows. Distinctbusiness processes may be mapped as relevant to the IT infrastructure,and the mapping of processes to infrastructure may be modeled. As onelayer of an auto discovery methodology, the automatic modeling offunctional IT processes can be mapped and made relevant to theappropriate applications according to middleware flows.

A method for modeling of applications and business process servicesthrough auto discovery analysis, according to one embodiment, will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 1A. An infrastructure is monitored todiscover managed components of the infrastructure and discover businessprocesses which are supported by the infrastructure (step S11). Aninformation model is formed based on the discovered components and thediscovered business processes (step S13). The information model mayinclude representations of IT processes. The method may further includemapping the discovered business processes to the components supportingthe business processes.

According to another embodiment (FIG. 1B), a method for managinginformation technology (IT) through auto discovery analysis to achievebusiness relevance may be provided. The method for managing IT throughauto discovery analysis to achieve business relevance can includeproviding one or more IT services to monitor an IT infrastructure andthereby discover managed components of the infrastructure and discoverbusiness processes which are supported by the infrastructure (step S21),and forming an information model based on the discovered components andthe discovered business processes (step S23). The information model mayinclude representations of IT processes. The method may further includemapping the discovered business processes to the components supportingthe business processes. The one or more IT services may include IT assetmanagement.

The method for managing IT through auto discovery analysis to achievebusiness relevance, according to another exemplary embodiment, can alsoinclude collecting business data from one or more data sources,analyzing the collected business data using the information model, andpredicting one or more business events based the analysis of thecollected business data. The method may further comprise automating aresponse to the one or more predicted business events. The predictedbusiness events may include one or more service violations and/orinformation technology outages.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the method for managing ITthrough auto discovery analysis to achieve business relevance mayfurther comprise providing means for visualizing the information model.The method also or alternatively can include providing a view of abusiness impact of a predicted business event. The business impact viewcan include prediction of financial impact, operational impact and/orcustomer impact. The business impact view also or alternatively caninclude a view of projected effect of the predicted business event onperformance, service availability, system configuration, job managementand/or IT asset management.

The method may further comprise using the information model for clientdevice management, server provisioning, resource analysis, availabilityand performance management, job management, output management, and/orservice provisioning, delivery and/or support.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the method for managing ITthrough auto discovery analysis to achieve business relevance mayfurther include providing common services applicable across businessprocesses, functions and/or applications. The method also oralternatively can further include using the information model forsecurity services, information transparency services, state managementservices, workflow services, self-management services, self-descriptionservices, and/or knowledge services.

The method for managing IT through auto discovery analysis to achievebusiness relevance, according to another exemplary embodiment, can alsoinclude performing network elements discovery, performing systemsdiscovery, performing network flow discovery, performing batch processdiscovery, and/or performing middleware integration discovery.

A schematic diagram of an exemplary infrastructure in which themethodologies of this application can be applied is shown in FIG. 2.

Additional exemplary embodiments are discussed below with reference toFIGS. 3-7.

For example, management of on-demand computing may integrate adaptive ITwith business management (also referred to as “achieving businessrelevance”). An architectural baseline which applies the methodologiesof this application to achieve business relevance is discussed below.The tools of this disclosure, for business-centric technologymanagement, can provide a seamless, efficient and powerful path toessential enterprise responsiveness.

Business relevance is achieved when you provide information andmanagement capability that directly responds to, and supports,decision-making within the context of business goals and objectives atall levels, from departmental through line of business to executivemanagement.

Dynamic alignment of IT with business priorities defines businessrelevance within the context of managing on-demand computing. Inaddition to providing better managed infrastructure, though that iscertainly one of our goals, an ability to view an event or change withinthe infrastructure through the lens of business priorities is provided.

For example, if a person (or a set of pre-defined policies) is delegatedthe responsibility of managing availability of a set of physicalresources (such as application servers), how is the relative importanceof any one of the servers determined on a demand priority basis? Ifmultiple servers degrade or fail, automated recovery fails, and only onetechnician is available, how is the business impact determinedaccurately enough to focus the technician on the right server first?

One conventional practice for IT management is establishing specific,measurable service level objectives within an overall service levelagreement that forms the contractual basis for support levels given tothe business customers of IT. However, a relatively static service levelobjective, in a typical set of incidents which occur within a rapidlychanging business environment, does not allow for dynamically aligningIT with business priorities.

A base level of capability for determining business impact at any pointin time is an understanding of the relationships between all theconstituent parts of the IT stacked up through the business processlevel. In the example of multiple application servers, business impacttypically cannot accurately be gauged without first knowing what part ofthe business is affected. An ability to discover and record, on anongoing basis, the managed elements of the infrastructure together withthe business processes that are being supported, and the fullrelationship between those parts is highly desirable. A system enablinganalysis of business impact is shown schematically in FIG. 3.

Service level objectives tend not to be fine-grained enough to map to aspecific business process at an arbitrary point in time. An applicationserver in some instances can be mapped to a department or line ofbusiness (for example, a customer of IT). However, discovery andrendition of business process, broken down to its constituent parts asrepresented by infrastructure elements, is still needed.

Although a static instance of a business process is a start todynamically align IT with business priorities, it does not achieve trulydynamic capability. The attributes of business processes as they changeduring business execution are taken into account to achieve dynamism forbusiness alignment. A business process model, as a proxy for a real,executing business process with values for properties that reflect itstrue state at a point in time, is one of the tools for achieving thedesired dynamism.

Process state may be considered to manage against a configured orobserved “baseline” state. Policies may be enacted, for deviations fromthe baseline, to return to the baseline or desired state. Policy, ofcourse, may involve a combination of human and/or automated actions.

Even a desired state is not a static view, and can change as thebusiness context changes and can also be modified by notions ofcriticality as defined by competing business priorities. The relativepriorities of ongoing business processes at an arbitrary point in timeis a factor for determining the relative impact of deviation fromdesired state for a process. The desired state may be adjusted eithertemporarily or permanently to reflect changing business priorities.

Although enterprise desired state is inherently complex, its accuratereal-time representation is achievable. By using, for example, astandard modeling language (UML), a common vocabulary and principlessuch as specializations, an accurate and useful model of the managedenvironment can be derived from an agreed-upon stable abstractinformation model. After desired state information is captured throughthe standard model, it can be dynamically managed through automatedpolicy and role-based command and control.

Some enabling characteristics of business relevance include delivery ofIT as a service and self-management built upon a service-orientedarchitecture. Standard, flexible and dynamic access to information andservices may be provided across the entire IT management portfolio,including integration with third-party management applications.Empowerment of roles, from helpdesk support through executive decisionmaker, may be provided to dynamically define and provision services thatmost closely meet organization objectives. Routine service support tasksmay be automated.

The highest-level characteristics of an information model thatfacilitate specification of an architectural baseline for businessrelevance, according to one embodiment, are that the information modelis (a) object-based, (b) policy-driven, (c) secure and role-based, (d)self-managing, (e) self-descriptive and (f) capable of providinginformation transparency. These characteristics allow one to decomposethe problem of how to define a service-oriented architecture thatenables delivery of IT as a service through self-management, and thebenefits of business alignment, responsiveness, and efficiency.

Each entity in the architecture can be described as an object derivedfrom some combination of elements in the information model, andtherefore the enterprise and its state and associated business processescan be modeled with a useful degree of accuracy and completeness, andthe relationships and effects of the rest of the model, such as allowingobjects to be policy-driven within a secure and role-based view, can bedefined.

Self-description facilitates dynamic interoperability. By first agreeingupon common semantics as defined by the information model, then addingthe ability for any object to ask and discover the characteristics ofany other object, the static brittleness that is typical ofmanually-defined and configured systems can be replaced with dynamicinteroperability that, in turn, supports the ability to be self-managed.

The capability to study information and data at various viewpoints andabstractions enables business relevance. Visualizing elements andunderstanding the complicated relationships that exist between themprovides the capability for obtaining a comprehensive picture about whatexists in the business today. By capturing the information in a standardvisual format, the hidden relationships that exist between the elementscan extracted to bring out significant business relevant value.

A meta-model may be provided to define a language for specifying modelsin the business management environment. The meta-model can have thecapability to describe dynamic semantics. Some examples of objects inthe meta-model layer include class, attribute, operation, associations,component, etc.

An information model, which may be provided as an abstract model,identifies and categorizes a set of classes that, when inherited,represents the management environment. This can be viewed as the mostabstract view of a management environment. The identification andcategorization process is preferably agnostic to any specificrepository, context, protocol, or platform. Some examples of classes arebusiness process, device, etc.

A core model may be provided to define a collection of abstract classesthat provide a basic vocabulary for analyzing and describing managementenvironments. The core model represents a starting point for an analystto determine how to extend the core models to create domain models. Someexamples of abstract classes are transaction, customer, etc.

A domain model may be provided as a basic set of classes that definevarious domains in the management environment. The environment mayconsist of domains such as devices, networks, systems, applications,users, services and business processes. The classes in the domain modelare intended to provide a view of the area that's detailed enough to useas a basis for component design and, in some cases, implementation. Adomain model is typically less stable as compared to a core model as aresult of promotion of classes defined in the extension models,additional classes as a result of changes to the domain model, andchanges due to introduction of new domains. Some examples of classes arenetwork printer, systems manager, etc.

Extension models are extensions to the domain model. The extensionsallow users of the domain model to create context sensitive models insupport of a specific implementation of a domain. For example, a productdevelopment group might decide to create a payroll process model byextending the business process model.

The models can be viewed as abstractions of elements in the managedenvironment. Domain models capture the elements closest to theday-to-day environment. Relevant domain experts can create these models.Concepts that appear across multiple domain models can be abstracted(such as through a generalization process) and put in the core model, inorder to allow the architecture to establish business relevantrelationships at a more abstract level. This process can be followed toabstract elements from the core model to the information model. Theextension model gives the flexibility to ground the domain models andrepresent the real world precisely.

The information model and the core model are typically more stable asthe architecture matures by modeling multiple domains. The two modelsare the source for defining domain models (the generalization processdefer to the specialization process). The stability of the informationmodel and the core model allow valuable business relevant data to bediscovered because the models provide a view of elements acrossdifferent domains. The business relevant information model forms a basisof interoperability.

Systems that makes IT management business relevant depend, to asignificant extent, on a clear understanding of the goals andcapabilities of the proposed system. IT infrastructure is managed tosupport real-time business objectives efficiently, superceding thetechno-centric focus of conventional approaches.

Enabling an authorized user simple access to role-relevant services andinformation in an easy-to-use fashion significantly streamlinesconsumption of IT resources, and maximizes operational and capitalinvestments.

An IT infrastructure preferably has capabilities to adapt automaticallyto technical malfunctions through superior analytics for diagnostics.Self-healing procedures may be provided, and infrastructure optimizationcan be addressed through dynamic resource management and embeddedservice awareness.

Products and services instantiated to achieve the stated goalspreferably have the following characteristics: distributed, available,scalable, adaptable, evolutionary, interoperable, predictable and agile.These types of systems are often characterized by non-trivial, implicit,and complex relationships between the parts that make up the system. Anarchitectural baseline is a catalyst for simplifying the process ofidentification and structured organization of the major parts of thesystem.

Software modules may be organized in libraries. The individual modulesof the library are referred to as patterns while the library itself isreferred to as catalog of patterns. Patterns may further be categorizedbased on their scale and abstraction as architectural patterns, designpatterns and language patterns.

An architectural pattern expresses a fundamental structural organizationschema for software systems. It provides a set of predefined subsystems,specifies their responsibilities, and includes rules and guidelines fororganizing the relationships between them.

Subsystems, or software parts, represent discrete functionality. Asoftware part is often referred to as a service.

Business relevance services are geared toward achieving the principlesof self-management, service-oriented architecture and delivering IT as aservice, and provide organizational and role-based contexts fordelivering solutions. The services transcend the traditional disciplinesof network, systems, and application management, or performance,availability and change management. Business relevance services mayinclude IT asset management, client device management, serverprovisioning, resource analysis and reporting, availability andperformance management, enterprise job management, enterprise outputmanagement, service provisioning, service delivery, service support,etc.

The IT asset management services provide insight into IT assets andtheir hardware and software elements across each and every stage oftheir lifecycle. Costs are controlled, efficiencies improved and returnon investment (ROI) maximized through comprehensive configurationcontrol, business reporting and analysis.

The client device management services propel end-user client devicemanagement from domain-based to enterprise-wide control, where itseamlessly supports the end-user computing needs of the business.Crossing all technical and organizational boundaries, its automatedfeatures reduce IT staff time spent distributing software, trackingassets and managing remote systems—keeping the asset base up and runningon a day-to-day basis.

The server provisioning services transform the resource-intensive,manual procedures involved with provisioning servers into automatedprocesses driven by business priorities. From automated reconfigurationto deployment of complex applications across servers, serverprovisioning ensure agile, efficient use of human and server resources.

The resource analysis services provide access to information joininghistorical and current sources for resource utilization, trend analysisand resource constraints. By providing systematic performancemeasurement of service levels and costs, businesses can proactivelyrespond to changing business requirements for resource deployment.

The availability and performance management services provide network,systems, database, application and web infrastructure management.Availability and performance services utilize advanced analyticcapabilities to support cross-domain process management, such as dynamicdiscovery, advanced event correlation for cross-domain root-causeanalytics, extended topology, impact analysis, etc.

Across the enterprise, thousands of (or more) jobs, such as databasebackups and order processing, may be processed every day to support thebusiness. If one of the jobs fails, the consequences can becatastrophic. For example, inventory might not be replenished, customersmight not receive bills, inaccurate information can appear while workersare using databases, etc. The enterprise job management services provideenterprise-wide visualization of schedules and individual job flows,integration with vendor packages, workload balancing and analysis, andadvanced calendaring for job flow modeling.

The output management services ensure that the right information in theright format is provided to the right audience across the entireenterprise, including secure document delivery, printing, viewing andstoring, and classification for advanced distribution to individuals andgroups.

Service provisioning allows IT services to be described, cataloged andvalidated for deployment. Required infrastructure elements can beverified in advance to ensure adequate service level capability.

Service delivery services allow for easy definition, measurement andmonitoring of agreed-upon service quality levels. By aggregatinginformation from across and through the IT stack, defined services canbe enabled for metric-based exception processing when service leveldeviations occur.

Service support enables resources, such as hardware, software, networkdevices, etc., to become service aware (for example, integrated with theservice environment, exchanging information on their service needs,etc.). Service aware integration allows for participating applicationsand services to seamlessly expose infrastructure service needs that canimpact business processes.

Common services define application-level functions that are applicableacross business processes, functions, and applications. Examples ofcommon services include service brokers, notification services,scheduling services, workflow services, registration and discoveryservices, additional services discussed below, etc.

Roles constitute an appropriate part of the information and are afundamental part of the principle of delivering IT as a service.Security services may focus on authentication and authorizationmechanisms. Role services use the security infrastructure to createpolicy-driven mapping between level of security and levels ofinformation. The security and role services that collaborate to achieverole-based secure access use the information model as an underlyinginformation exchange mechanism.

Creating useful information from multiple (possibly disparate) datasources is a significant task. However, business relevance demandsappropriate, consistent and correlated information rather than scatteredvolumes of data. Information transparency services enable graduation ofdiscrete real-time or historical data sources to useful informationsources. The process involves aggregation and transformation of datasources by using well-defined aggregation and transformation rules andan information model as the basis for information exchange.

States indicate the ability of the enterprise to perform its core tasks.Services that participate in or enable state management arecharacterized as state management services. State management servicesalso may act as triggers to other services, such as self-managementservices, in order to reach a desired state from an undesirable state.State management services depend on information model compliance toprovide higher levels of automation.

Workflow services enable a simplified and streamlined automation ofenterprise class business processes, operations, tasks, andtransactions. Workflow services may incorporate services for mapping,modeling and execution of the processes, operation, tasks ortransactions. Mapping is a stage in the adoption of a workflow serviceand involves the task of discovering and recording manual and automaticbusiness processes, tasks or transactions. The modeling processtransforms the map into a formal workflow model and is in turn consumedby the execution services to automate the tasks at hand.

Self-management services enable IT organizations to automaticallyrespond to, and compensate for, fluctuations in IT environment to attaina desired state. The desired state, in this context, is typicallydetermined by business priorities. For example, self-management servicesmay allow a web site to automatically bring more servers online tohandle an unexpected high volume.

Delivering business relevance preferably involves providing anend-to-end transparency of the IT infrastructure, including building arepository of underlying IT elements such as networks, systems,applications and business processes. In addition to the elements therepository may also include implicit and explicit dependencies spreadacross multiple tiers, relevant attributes and associated businesspriorities or policies. Self-description services enable transparency asa continuum.

Attaining a self-managed or desired state includes acting based on pastexperience and captured knowledge. Knowledge services such as root-causeanalysis or event correlation provide a backbone to attain the desiredstate. These services transform real-time and historical informationinto past experience and use it along with the business objectives, forexample, embedded in the information model policies, to makeknowledgeable decisions such as inferences.

Infrastructure services provide applications or other services with coreservices that are not specific to a particular business process,function, or application. Examples of infrastructure services mayinclude exception handling services, data logging services,visualization services, repository service, notification services,persistence services, administrative services, etc.

A business relevance information infrastructure defines a set ofconcepts, services and components which form the basis of a well-definedenvironment for the services discussed above. The business relevanceinformation infrastructure includes a common computing and managementenvironment (CCME) and an information model.

The common computing and management environment includes a set ofcomponents and services for enabling business relevant management andinformation delivery. The CCME simplifies the task of constructinginteroperable services by defining a high-level, standardizedinformation model and by providing a complete set of common andinfrastructural services to support the information model. The CCMEeffectively provides the unifying environment that allows for quickassembly of new applications or extension of existing applications byproviding access to the layered services discussed previously.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of a common computing andmanagement environment, according to one embodiment, as a unifyingstructure allowing reuse of services and information.

An information model facilitates semantic interoperability using acommon meta-model as the basis for a common object model. The commonmeta-model and object model achieve semantic interoperability forlarge-scale evolutionary implementations. Syntactically interoperablesystems exchange data using agreed upon data formats and structures,share common meaning and reduce the effort for developing interoperablesystems. The semantics of an object includes its states, the rulesgoverning its behavior, and the meaning of its interfaces andcapabilities. For applications to share a common unit of information,the semantics of the unit are agreed to between the applications. Thesemantics define the contract to which the various actors adhere wheninteracting with the information.

The structural organization for the services or major subsystems,according to one embodiment, is further discussed below. The specifiedpattern is a collaborative adoption of two distinct patterns.

Business relevance management software typically is an enterpriseapplication that is composed of a large number of components acrossmultiple levels of abstraction. A structural organization similar to astack may be used. The architectural pattern is called “layers”. Thisstructural organization provides capabilities such as distributed,available, scalable, etc.

Most, if not all, of the subsystems may be in the form of services. Theservice-oriented architecture fosters capabilities in the resultingsystem such as being adaptable, evolutionary, interoperable,predictable, agile, etc.

The architecture baseline for business relevance IT managementpreferably is a composite of layers pattern and service-orientedarchitectural pattern (layered services pattern). It encourages exposureof discrete business functionality in the form of well-definedself-describing services. To further reduce the complexity and increasere-use of services across different business domains guidelines maybeestablished to organize the services in layers.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of a layered servicesarchitecture supporting the organization and use of the various servicelayers previously discussed.

An adapted pattern-oriented software architecture may be used as astandardized format. The format uses context, problem and solutionframework as basic elements. The context states the situation(s) thatleads to an establishment of a problem that is to be solved. The problemsection states the general nature of the problem and some specificaspects of the problem that the solution should address. The solutionframework shows how to solve the problem taking into consideration thespecific aspects identified in the problem definition.

The layers pattern helps to structure the applications that can bedecomposed into groups of subtasks in which each group of subtasks is ata particular level. The context is that a business relevance ITmanagement system is a large and complicated system which is preferablydecomposed and organized into smaller subsystems. The solution forbuilding a large and complicated system preferably balances forces suchas the following: the resulting system supports the capabilities ofbeing distributed, available, scalable; layers built for today's systemare usable by tomorrow's systems; and layering supports evolution ofindividual layers or the “contained components” in the layer.

The layers pattern can be followed by separating the solution componentsinto layers. Layers promote distribution across multiple physicalboundaries to provide scalability, distributed support and availability.Granularity of function and the level of abstraction provided by eachlayer ensure evolution and re-use. There have been several successfulinstantiations of this pattern, for example, TCP/IP stack, operationsystems, etc.

FIG. 6 depicts a schematic representation of a layered applicationscheme applied to a business relevant IT management, according to oneembodiment.

Service oriented architectural pattern is defined as a collection ofservices that follow a standardized definition of a software part called“service”, are used, deployed and available across the enterprise toprovide higher level business functions. The context is that a businessrelevant IT management system is decomposed into a set of services withrelationships that span across multiple layers. The solution fordecomposition of the system into a collection of services balancesforces such as the following: service-oriented architectures fosterseamless integration and interoperability of business functions acrossthe enterprise; service-oriented architectures encourage adequategranularity and abstraction for the services to enable the building ofnew applications as an assembly of existing services and to provideexchangeability to enhance existing services; service-orientedarchitectures provide mechanisms for different services to supportuniform and ubiquitous definition, access and independence ofconsumption.

Service oriented architecture can be realized through a definition of aset of standards and a set of common and infrastructure services thatsupport the standards. A web services framework, including relatedtechnologies (for example, XML, WSDL, SOAP, UDDI etc), may be used tobuild the service oriented architecture. The basic notions defined inthe web services framework supports requestor's independence byproviding services to either end-user applications or other servicesthrough accepted and well-established standards for publishing anddiscovering service access points or interfaces. Services can be apreferred way to expose discrete business relevance management functionsand therefore can be used to develop applications that supportmanagement of business processes. After the infrastructure and commonservices are in place, new applications are no longer developed fromscratch but rather are assembled from a set of existing services.

Strategies for operational effectiveness or software engineering arepreferably built upon evolutionary approaches (as opposed to wholesalereplacement). As patterns emerge as a means of organizing structuralelements and best practices in architecture, maturity models also emergeas a way of defining standard mechanisms for managing change acrosspeople, process and technology.

The first level of business relevance capability includes the following:automatic discovery which includes discovery of all managed components,and mapping of dependency relationships; business process view of the ITinfrastructure, such that discovered components are viewable within thecontext of the business process using or depending upon the components;self-healing, that is, management products and components are enabledfor self-corrective action, such as to repair an installation if acomponent is inadvertently deleted or disabled, or to restart servicesor daemon processes which are inadvertently stopped; service aware, thatis management products and components have the ability to directlyinteract with helpdesk systems to, for example, automatically opentrouble tickets when self-corrective activity fails or is insufficientor incomplete; self-installing and self-configuring, that is, managementproducts and components are enabled for quiet or keyless install, thusenabling just-in-time and on-demand deployment by software deliverysolutions, and once installed, the products provide a level ofself-configuration that extends at least to discovering the requisiteelements of the target managed environment.

Self-management, self-installation, self-maintenance and self-healingare described also in commonly owned U.S. Provisional Application No.60/486,793, filed Jul. 11, 2003 and entitled “SELF MANAGEMENT INCLUDINGGENETIC SELF MANAGEMENT”, which is incorporated herein in its entiretyby reference.

After the management components have been deployed, and relationshipshave been discovered, the management components observe systemperformance and establish a baseline of metrics that reflect thatperformance. This translates to the thresholds that are configured andmonitored to detect deviations from the baseline which in turn suppliesthe management events that, when correlated within the proper businessview context, allow for corrective policy execution.

In addition, complete and consistent management coverage is provided ateach of the horizontal stacks, including network, system, database, web,and application. Event correlation and policy execution is providedglobally across and between the stacks. To have the ability to correlateIT infrastructure events in a business relevant fashion, therelationships within and between the business process views of theinfrastructure are extracted, which also enables effective policyexecution towards management to a desired state within the businesscontext, not just an isolated IT component context. Transparent viewsand management capability are provided within the same business context.

Further, some higher-level common components and capabilities includingthe following can be added: state management services; workflowservices; fully described information models and metadata services;role-based context for information views and attendant event correlationand policy execution; higher-level definition of business events thatare correlated in context; common computing and management environment.

Thus, higher-level business events can be correlated with lower-levelinfrastructure events to begin to drive management decisions and policywithin their proper business relevant context. For example, dispatchingof a technician to fix one of the multiple off-line application serverscan be correlated with the business events to understand where thecriticality lies from a business perspective.

Additional business relevance capability may be obtained through addingcharacteristics that enable on-demand computing. By understandingbusiness processes and how IT-delivered services support thoseprocesses, the services, and the underlying infrastructure can beenabled to dynamically adapt as business priorities change. An objectiveis to allow business managers to make purely business decisions, withthe underlying IT services adapting to support those decisions. Theadaptability spans not only adjusting service levels, but alsoprovisioning new or expanded services as required or needed.

A graphical depiction of coexistence across the different capabilitylevels from a technology perspective might look something like FIG. 7which shows a schematic representation of one possible system in whichproducts and services at varying levels of adherence to an architecturalstandard participate in the overall system. Products and services builtat varying capability levels can still take advantage of aservice-oriented architecture. At the most basic message-passing level,protocol adapters can be provided to plug in legacy events and messagetraffic. At a higher level, business relevance adapters begin to exposegreater levels of services capability such as workflow services and datatransparency services to offer aggregation and transformation of datafrom various information sources as well as adaptation of functions viaweb services gateways. At the highest level adherence and participationin the common computing and management environment is provided.

The auto discovery methodologies of this application can save largelabor-intensive efforts in the mapping of which pieces of the ITinfrastructure are relevant to which business process. This concept canbe utilized in, for example, predetermination and presentation ofmonitoring, availability, performance and management of heterogeneous ITenvironment as well as business process management and impact. Thediscovery methodologies can enable automated or on-demand discovery ofobject relationships that make up a business process or businessservice.

The tools of this application may be applied to business continuancemodels and plans. Business continuance describes the processes andprocedures an organization puts in place to ensure that essentialfunctions can continue during and after a disaster. Business continuanceplanning seeks to prevent interruption of mission-critical services, andto reestablish full functioning as swiftly and smoothly as possible.Auto discovery may be applied to develop and maintain businesscontinuance models and plans.

Elements and/or features of different illustrative embodiments may becombined with and/or substituted for each other within the scope of thisdisclosure and appended claims. The above specific embodiments areillustrative, and many variations can be introduced on these embodimentswithout departing from the spirit of the disclosure or from the scope ofthe appended claims.

For example, additional variations may be apparent to one of ordinaryskill in the art from reading commonly-owned applications, which areincorporated herein in their entireties by reference:

-   -   U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/486,317, filed Jul. 11, 2003        and entitled “MODELING OF APPLICATIONS AND BUSINESS PROCESS        SERVICES THROUGH AUTO DISCOVERY ANALYSIS”;    -   U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/486,868, filed Jul. 11, 2003        and entitled “INFRASTRUCTURE AUTO DISCOVERY FROM BUSINESS        PROCESS MODELS VIA BATCH PROCESSING FLOWS”;    -   U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/486,603, filed Jul. 11, 2003        and entitled “INFRASTRUCTURE AUTO DISCOVERY FROM BUSINESS        PROCESS MODELS VIA MIDDLEWARE FLOWS”; and    -   U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/486,689, filed Jul. 11, 2003        and entitled “NETWORK DATA TRAFFIC AND PATTERN FLOWS ANALYSIS        FOR AUTO DISCOVERY”.

1. A method for managing information technology (IT) through autodiscovery analysis to achieve business relevance, comprising: providingone or more IT services to monitor an IT infrastructure and therebydiscover managed components of the infrastructure and discover businessprocesses which are supported by the infrastructure; and forming aninformation model based on the discovered components and the discoveredbusiness processes.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising mappingthe discovered business processes to the components supporting thebusiness processes.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the informationmodel includes representations of IT processes.
 4. The method of claim 1further comprising: collecting business data from one or more datasources; analyzing the collected business data using the informationmodel; and predicting one or more business events based the analysis ofthe collected business data.
 5. The method of claim 4 further comprisingautomating a response to the one or more predicted business events. 6.The method of claim 4, wherein the predicted business events include oneor more service violations.
 7. The method of claim 4, wherein thepredicted business events include one or more information technologyoutages.
 8. The method of claim 4 further comprising providing a view ofa business impact of a predicted business event.
 9. The method of claim8, wherein the business impact view includes prediction of financialimpact.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the business impact viewincludes prediction of operational impact.
 11. The method of claim 8,wherein the business impact view includes a view of projected effect ofthe predicted business event on performance.
 12. The method of claim 8,wherein the business impact view includes a view of projected effect ofthe predicted business event on service availability.
 13. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the business impact view includes a view of projectedeffect of the predicted business event on system configuration.
 14. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the business impact view includes a view ofprojected effect of the predicted business event on job management. 15.The method of claim 8, wherein the business impact view includes a viewof projected effect of the predicted business event on IT assetmanagement.
 16. The method of claim 8, wherein the business impact viewincludes prediction of customer impact.
 17. The method of claim 1,wherein the one or more IT services include IT asset management.
 18. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising using the information model forclient device management.
 19. The method of claim 1 further comprisingusing the information model for server provisioning.
 20. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising using the information model for resourceanalysis.
 21. The method of claim 1 further comprising using theinformation model for availability and performance management.
 22. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising using the information model for jobmanagement.
 23. The method of claim 1 further comprising using theinformation model for output management.
 24. The method of claim 1further comprising using the information model for service provisioning,delivery and/or support.
 25. The method of claim 1 further comprisingproviding common services applicable across business processes,functions and/or applications.
 26. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising using the information model for security services.
 27. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising using the information model forinformation transparency services.
 28. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising using the information model for state management services.29. The method of claim 1 further comprising using the information modelfor workflow services.
 30. The method of claim 1 further comprisingusing the information model for self-management services.
 31. The methodof claim 1 further comprising using the information model forself-description services.
 32. The method of claim 1 further comprisingusing the information model for knowledge services.
 33. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising performing network elements discovery. 34.The method of claim 1 further comprising performing systems discovery.35. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing network flowdiscovery.
 36. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing batchprocess discovery.
 37. The method of claim 1 further comprisingperforming middleware integration discovery.
 38. The method of claim 1further comprising providing means for visualizing the informationmodel.
 39. A computer system, comprising: a processor; and a programstorage device readable by the computer system, tangibly embodying aprogram of instructions executable by the processor to perform themethod claimed in claim
 1. 40. A program storage device readable by amachine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by themachine to perform the method claimed in claim
 1. 41. A computer datasignal transmitted in one or more segments in a transmission mediumwhich embodies instructions executable by a computer to perform themethod claimed in claim
 1. 42. A method for modeling of applications andbusiness process services through auto discovery analysis, comprising:performing network elements discovery; performing systems discovery;performing network flow discovery; performing batch process discovery;and performing middleware integration discovery.
 43. A computer system,comprising: a processor; and a program storage device readable by thecomputer system, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executableby the processor to perform the method claimed in claim
 42. 44. Aprogram storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying aprogram of instructions executable by the machine to perform the methodclaimed in claim
 42. 45. A computer data signal transmitted in one ormore segments in a transmission medium which embodies instructionsexecutable by a computer to perform the method claimed in claim 42.